Palin picks up reading at finding two, it seems, which says the firing was fine. She skips finding one, which calls her out for improper influence - both on her part and for letting her husband exert some as well.

Palin's lawyer cleverly fights back by saying since there was no monetary benefit gained from her wrongful influence, she didn't violate the state ethics law. Super clever. I suppose that's the best I could have come up with as well if my client were guilty of ethics violations. If this were a court battle, however, that'd be a losing argument. I don't know AK's ethics laws, but knowing a bit about ethics laws generally from past clerkship experience, I'd say the Palin excuses are pretty thin.